1. Field
The disclosed and claimed concept relates generally to handheld electronic devices and, more particularly, to a method of enabling input on a handheld electronic device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Numerous types of handheld electronic devices are known. Examples of such handheld devices include, for instance, personal data assistants (PDAs), handheld computers, two-way pagers, cellular telephones, and the like. Many handheld electronic devices also feature wireless communication capability, although many such handheld devices are stand-alone devices that are functional without communication with other devices.
Users of handheld electronic devices can often find themselves entering a large amount of data, such as numerical data, into their handheld electronic devices. In order to ease the load on the user and to increase the amount of data that the user can enter into the handheld electronic device, some handheld electronic devices (hereinafter, referred to as traditional handheld electronic devices) allow the user to enter a punctuation, such as a period, simply by actuating a single input member, such as the <SPACE> key, a number of times. For example, the handheld electronic device can be programmed to output a period upon detecting two successive actuations (i.e., a double actuation) of the <SPACE> key. In some instances, however, the output that is generated in response to the double actuation of the <SPACE> key actually increases the load on the user because the user may have to take corrective measures prior to entering more data into the handheld electronic device. Therefore, it would be desirable to overcome this shortcoming in an efficient fashion that makes the handheld electronic device easier to use.